


A broken promise

by dumbnomi (JinxxyMinxxy)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, One Piece Spoilers, One Shot, POV Roronoa Zoro, Roronoa Zoro-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28291533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxxyMinxxy/pseuds/dumbnomi
Summary: My first ever scenario and it’s a short story about how Zoro lost his eye! Based on the one word prompt “Regret”
Kudos: 9





	A broken promise

Two years is a long time to be away from someone, so of course the crew is a bit shocked at how much they’ve all changed. But they’re all excited to see each other again and talk about what they did the two years they were away. Everyone is asking where someone was sent flying to or what new fighting techniques they learned. However, the one thing no one dares to bring up is Zoro’s new scar.

This doesn’t mean they haven’t made guesses to each other about it, speculations they wouldn’t dare speak in front of the swordsman. But even with their hushed whispers he’s heard a few of their theories. Usopp’s is the most outrageous though. Zoro overhears him telling Chopper that Zoro lost his eye to a demon because of his cursed sword and that it lives inside him now. But this is far from the truth because the truth is a much harsher reality. The truth is something that belongs on Zoro’s list of regrets. Something filled with shame and uncontrollable emotions.

It all happened fast at the time but now the memory plagues his head, dancing in slow motion on nights he can’t sleep. It taunts him like the other memories that fill up his list of regrets. These memories are ones that show him how weak he was and still is. The day Kuina died and how he couldn’t save her, the day he lost to Mihawk, and the day he lost to Kuma. Those last two are both days he thought he’d die. He wasn’t afraid of dying, no his biggest fear was that he wouldn’t be able to keep his promises and would be consumed by darkness with only his regrets to keep him company. The fight with Kuma was the first time he had lost and broken his promise with Luffy, but it wasn’t the last.

When he woke up in the castle on Kuraigana Island his emotions felt out of control. He was filled with anger and shame. His anger only seemed to intensify when he read about Ace’s imprisonment. He knew Luffy would go to save his brother and Zoro was determined to be there to help him. He spent so long looking for a way to get off the island, but before he could find a way to leave it was already too late. Mihawk had arrived and told him how Ace had died and how Luffy wasn’t far from dying himself, if he wasn’t already dead. Zoro bottled the emotions he felt at the time, keeping the anger at bay. He finally found some relief when he saw his captain in the newspaper and figured out the hidden message he had left for the crew. But his relief could only mend so many cracks in the broken bottle he locked his emotions inside.

He had put his pride aside to bow his head to Mihawk and ask him to make him stronger. Mihawk had asked if he was ashamed to be bowing his head to his enemy and Zoro was truthful when he said no. The true shame he felt was because he couldn’t be there to save his crewmates from Kuma or to help Luffy save his brother.

Zoro’s training was always watched over by Mihawk. After two years Zoro still hasn’t figured out if Mihawk kept an eye on him because he was still recovering from his injuries or if it was because Mihawk found some sort of entertainment in watching him fight the humandrills. Zoro thought the training would help him let out his anger but it only seemed to build up more with every bruise and cut he recieved.

Eventually the bottle shattered. His locked up emotions were set free to swirl around in his head. They started eating right through him, eating away what little self control he had left. Zoro did what he always does when he can’t sleep, he went to train. This time it didn’t include weights and meditation, no this time training was taking on the humandrills in a fit of rage.

The walk from the castle through the forest is still a blur to him. He remembers seeing red and cutting down anything in his path. He wasted no time taking on all of the humandrills in sight when he arrived at the wooden cross. But the humandrills never seemed to stop coming and his body was screaming from the fatigue of training every day. The pain from wounds that were still trying to heal made him slow. He was sluggish and overflowing with emotions he couldn’t control.

The memory that taunts him in slow motion from that night always starts the same way. The humandrills had been more fierce than ever before, they had fed off the anger seeping from him using it to grow their strength. One fast stroke of a sword from them is all it took to blind him. A stroke he should have been able to dodge effortlessly, one he has dodged effortlessly countless times before. In his haze he hadn’t noticed the swing of a sword aiming for his neck. A swing with enough force to decapitate him. What he did notice was the clink of metal and the black sword right next to his face. Mihawk had noticed his disappearance and came looking for him. However, Mihawk wasn’t one to finish someone else’s fight.

This was a fight Zoro would have to finish himself and the shock of Mihawk saving him had helped him regain some of his senses. Zoro had finished the fight feeling exhausted and empty. He had won the fight and should have felt pride, but this felt like a loss to him. He had to be saved because he couldn’t control his emotions and it made him feel like he was no longer the proud swordsman he use to be. This would always count as a loss to him, something to be ashamed of, to regret, another broken promise to his captain.

So two years later when the crew is having dinner and someone finally asks him what happened to his eye, he’s unsure how to respond. He ignores the question as if he hadn’t heard it and continues to chug the rum from his bottle as if the liquor could push down the shame and regret that was bubbling up inside him.


End file.
